General Austrian women's association

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The General Austrian Women's Association (AÖFV) existed from 1893 to 1919 and represented its own political direction within the women's movement . Auguste Fickert was a central figure in the AÖFV until her death in 1910. The membership ranged between 200 and 300 women. Men could become supporting members, with a say in the association being reserved for women.

history

The establishment of the AÖFV resulted from a protest rally. This was organized by some teachers from the suburbs of Vienna at the time , when the tax-paying, self-employed women in Lower Austria wanted to withdraw their right to vote in municipal elections in 1889, after they had already been deprived of the right to vote in the state parliament the year before.

The association was founded on January 28th, 1893 in the meeting room of the Old Town Hall in Vienna . Ottilie Turnau was the chairman of the founding assembly; Auguste Fickert, Anna Frisch, Marie Mussil, Amelie Straß, Ottilie Turnau, Marie Völkl and Flora Weinwurm were elected to the board. As in other associations, the office of president remained vacant for the time being. Auguste Fickert was not elected president until 1897.

The democratic MP Ferdinand Kronawetter made his party newspaper “Volksstimme” available between 1893 and 1897 for the first monthly publication “(The) Right of Women” . In 1899 the women's association founded its own journal "Documents of Women", which was edited by Auguste Fickert, Marie Lang and Rosa Mayreder and in which contributions to discussions and articles on questions of politics, law, medicine, psychoanalysis etc. were published on a regular basis. Men were also allowed to write in the magazine. After disputes between Fickert and Mayreder on the one hand and Marie Lang on the other hand, the “women's documents” were discontinued. From 1902 to 1918 the “New Women's Life” followed as a club magazine.

In 1902, the civil women's associations formed the Federation of Austrian Women's Associations (BÖFV) and the AÖFV also became a member. But even when it was founded, there were discrepancies because the BÖFV was too apolitical from the AÖFV's point of view. In 1906 the AÖFV left the federal government, with 24 members leaving the association.

After the death of Auguste Fickert in 1910, the post of President was initially vacant. Sofie Regen and Mathilde Hanzel became vice-presidents. The struggle for women's suffrage was interrupted by the First World War, and it was only when the Austrian parliament resumed in May 1917 that meetings were held again and joint motions for women's suffrage were submitted.

In 1919 the association disbanded.

goals and tasks

The most important goals were to achieve the right to vote and the associated civic equality , admission to all educational institutions and the creation of equal career opportunities for women. The women did not want to join any party because they only saw an opportunity to enforce women's rights in autonomous work. Nonetheless, we worked with the Social Democrats at times. There was, however, a strong demarcation from the bourgeois Christian camp of the women's movement. With the first monthly publication "(The) Right of Women", the association's first press product appeared right from the start. He was later followed by his own magazines "Documents of Women" and "Neue Frauenleben".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Women's associations ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Website of the Austrian National Library. Retrieved May 22, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.onb.ac.at
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i General Austrian Women's Association in the database Women in Motion 1848–1938 of the Austrian National Library
  3. ^ [Neues Frauenleben, Vol. 15, No. 6, 1903, p. 19, footnote by Auguste Fickert]
  4. ↑ [Der Bund, vol. 1, No. 6, 1906, p. 10]